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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Insanity, Deranged Terror, And Mass Killings–Germany Has Caught The American Virus

The Munich shooter (7/16) was not a member of nor motivated by ISIS. He was
a mentally disturbed teenager who had been obsessed with mass killings. He went
on his rampage with a Glock semi-automatic, fled the scene, then killed himself.

It seems as if Germany has been infected with the American virus that causes
psychotic, deranged individuals to go berserk. This mass killing in many ways
is worse than any organized terror attack, for there is virtually no way for
even the best-trained civil authorities or members of an extensive security
apparatus to anticipate such events. In the United States there must be tens of
thousands of unhappy, disaffected, chemically imbalanced psychotics who need
only a nudge to push them over the line into violence and mayhem.

In the politically-divided, contentious environment of America today, when
racial, ethnic, and gender hatreds are fueled by the force-feeding of a
progressive agenda, it is no surprise that those on the edge of a psychotic
episode need little to incite them to violent action. In the unreal world of
the schizophrenic there are no consequences, guilt, or responsibility.

It is not possible to cool down the rhetoric. Identity politics have given
license to the most marginal groups, legitimizing their grievances and
tolerating if not promoting any actions taken to seek redress. Black Lives
Matter is only the most recent example of such intemperate progressivism.
Within an atmosphere of collective anger and hostility, and within a movement
without a highly-structured hierarchy, a borderline psychotic may be infected by
the hysteria and act violently.

www.progressiverags.com
In societies where multiculturalism and pluralism are celebrated and where
ethnic, religious, and religious factions have become more numerous, tensions
caused by initial social and economic inequality are exacerbated by progressive
identity politics. I want mine, and everybody wants theirs.
More broadly, in a society where airing frustration and anger at perceived
injustice is encouraged, and where self-image and almost universal sanction for
the expression of individual feelings, grievances, and abuse are canonized, no
one should be surprised at employees ‘going post office’; at unstable
marginalized teenagers acting out fantasies of power by killing classmates.

Coverage of tormented rampages are given 24/7 coverage by all-news networks
and details quickly go viral. To the sane, such killing sprees are
unconscionable and unthinkable; but to borderline schizophrenics, they can be
blueprints for carrying out twisted desires.

Since little can be done to censure the press for the coverage of violent
events; and since no self-control has ever been exerted when ‘If it bleeds, it
leads’ has been a media axiom for decades; other means of addressing the
epidemic must be found.

Similarly, until a much more conservative administration is elected – one
which will publically challenge identity-sponsored violence and mob rule – the
tolerance for displays of black, Latino, American Indian, LGBT, etc. grievances,
no matter how legitimate will only increase.
There are, however, certain steps which can be taken.

Current privacy regulations restrict the sharing of personal medical
histories with civil authorities. Doctors who have diagnosed and chronicled a
patient’s emotional instability and potential threat to others cannot inform the
police. Yet this new disease –schizophrenic violence – could easily be treated
as typhoid or other infectious diseases were before the politicization of AIDS.
There is no reason why medical records of ‘infected’ individuals should not be
shared.

As every civic institution has been mobilized in periods of epidemic disease,
so could they now. Most of the money spent on metal detectors, body scanners,
and other security measures could be spent on the intensive training of
teachers, counselors, and school administrators to detect problems before they
become fully blown.

Mental illness should not be treated like any other disease except in the
metaphorical infectious sense. Extreme psychosis is not the same as invasive
cancer or pernicious hypertension. It can cause injury and death to others.
The normative culture should change. Avoiding stigma should not be foremost in
the minds of civil or medical authorities. Avoiding harm to others should. The
severely deranged should be stigmatized and taken out of circulation.
It was wrong to empty mental hospitals; and it is just as wrong to treat serious
mental illness as just another disability.

As was recently (7/16) seen in Nice, guns are not the issue. The person who
mowed down scores of people with a truck had a firearm with him, but did not
need it. A heavy vehicle at high speed had the inertia to be just as explosive
as a bomb or an automatic rifle.

Guns are never the issue. The motivating forces behind gun slaughter is.
There is no doubt that a country which makes access to guns nearly impossible,
mass killings with firearms would be fewer; but the number of
murderous incidents would not decrease.

Germany has a right to be concerned about the Munich shootings. It is proud
of the discipline, rationality, and morality of its population. Yet they only
have to look at Norway, a country similarly homogeneous, socially conservative,
and morally sound, to see that unhinged rampages can occur anywhere.

If a new, more conservative American administration wins in November (2016)
and begins to roll back the progressive-inspired Politically Correct hysteria of
the past decade; if psychotic violence is classified as a public health problem
and treated with as much surveillance and intrusion as any other disease; and if
resources are moved away from physical security and gun control to prophylaxis
(preventing violence by anticipating it), then perhaps the number of mass
shootings by psychotic individuals can be reduced.

Germany and Norway have a chance to institute such measures before it is too
late. We can only hope that it is not too late to catch up.